Roddy was born [[3 January]][[1929]] in [[Old Hunstanton]], [[Norfolk]], and died [[20 December]][[2000]] in London, aged 71. H. His father [[Brigadier]] John Gradidge, was posted in [[India]] at the time of his son's birth, who was then brought up amidst the splendours of the [[British Raj]]. He was sent off to Public School at [[Stowe School|Stowe]] and from there and after 2 years [[National Service]] in the [[Palestine]], he moved to London and the [[Architectural Association]], where he completed his training as an architect and was elected an Associate of the [[Royal Institute of British Architects]] ([[ARIBA]]). He remained in London practising as an architect and writer for most of his life, where he was a prominent figure in social and architectural circles in the last half of the 20th Century. Roddy was an advocate of rational dress, a movement more usually associated with modernists, and had suits tailored in fine cloths that featured jackets and kilts. For much of his life he wore his hair uncut and tied as a plait; he felt cutting it was unecessary and wasteful of time. He was long-time member of the congregation of the Anglo-Catholic St Mary’s, Bourne Street, Kensington, where his requiem mass was celebrated. On that occasion the priest officiating quipped in his eulogy that it was one of the few occaions he could remember when Roddy was on time for mass. He had no children and was never married.
